A representative speaks with job applicants at a job fair at Brunswick Community College in Bolivia, North Carolina, April 11, 2024.
Alison Joyce | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The data showed that the unemployment rate for white Americans remained stable from April to May, bucking the unemployment trend for all other racial groups. Data released on Friday by the Department of Labor.
The white unemployment rate remained at 3.5% last month, making the white group the only group whose unemployment rate did not rise between April and May. This also goes against the headline unemployment rate, which edged up from 3.9% to 4%.
At the same time, the unemployment rate among black Americans rose from 5.6% to 6.1%. Unemployment rates for Asian and Hispanic workers rose from 2.8% to 3.1% and from 4.8% to 5%, respectively.
“We clearly need to focus on historically marginalized groups to ensure economic recovery,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
But Gould isn’t particularly worried about rising unemployment among certain groups right now. “We don’t see any real divergence from the trends there,” she added.
Gould noted the trend was slightly stronger for black men, whose unemployment rate jumped from 5.2% to 6.4%, while women’s unemployment rate jumped from 5% to 5.2%. The economist attributed the increase to labor force fluctuations, noting that the numbers are almost back to levels seen earlier this year.
Among white workers, the labor force participation rate fell from 62.3% to 62.2%.
The overall labor force participation rate also fell from 62.7% to 62.5%, and that of black Americans fell from 63.2% to 62.9%. However, the share of Asian Americans rose from 64.7% to 65.3%, while the share of Latino workers remained steady at 67.3%.
—CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this report.
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